Final V8 driver places filling up

Mark Fogarty

The remaining dominoes are starting to fall for V8 Supercar drivers, with the confirmed return of Alex Davison leaving just four unfilled places for next year.

Davison, 33, has been recalled by Ford's sole surviving factory-backed team after being dumped at the end of last year by defecting Blue Oval squad Stone Brothers Racing.

He will join his younger brother Will Davison at Ford Performance Racing, which is expanding to four cars.

The Melbourne-based Davisons are the third generation of an Australian motor sport dynasty, started by their late grand father Lex, a single-seater star until his fatal race crash at Melbourne's Sandown in early 1965.

Their cousin James also races, competing in American sports cars in the Indycar Series.

Davison's return from a year on the sidelines follows the news that veteran Russell Ingall is staying on for a farewell season next year, blocking 2011 Bathurst 1000 co-winner Nick Percat's planned graduation to his Walkinshaw Racing Holden seat.

Advertisement

Davison is also shutting out another young gun: FPR understudy Chaz Mostert was pencilled in for the team's additional fourth Falcon, utilising returning car-owner Charlie Schwerkolt's entry, until wayward driving cost him V8 racing's second-level Dunlop Series title.

Mostert has joined Percat, who also fumbled his shot at the development series prize, in the V8 big league job queue, along with drivers displaced in the end-of-season reshuffle.

The problem is, there are many more drivers trying to graduate or stay than there are vacancies.

Melbourne-born forklift tycoon Schwerkolt is joining forces with FPR after two years leasing his entry to Ford folk hero Johnson as part of the settlement of their acrimonious split at the end of 2010.

Davison, axed by Ford-backed SBR after three disappointing seasons, secured his comeback because he is seen as a safer pair of hands by Schwerkolt, who can't risk blowing his limited budget on the inevitable crashes of a main-game rookie.

Ironically, SBR has been left high and dry by the departure of its rising star Shane van Gisbergen, who has quit V8 racing to return to his native New Zealand.

Like DJR, SBR was to lose its longtime Ford backing next year and switched to Mercedes-Benz in an ambitious privately funded partnership with wealthy newcomer Erebus Motorsport and the German manufacturer's performance-car division AMG.

With no experienced driver of van Gisbergen's calibre available, Erebus could use its connections to source an AMG Mercedes-linked European as his replacement.

Percat and Mostert could also be loaned out to SBR, but the likelihood is that they'll repeat in the Dunlop Series while their main rivals the junior V8 title, runner-up Scott Pye and championship winning New Zealand teenager Scott McLaughlin, have both been promoted to the main series.

McLaughlin, 19, has been signed by renowned V8 talent spotter Garry Rogers for his Fujitsu Racing Racing team, replacing lead driver Michael Caruso, who is moving to Kelly Racing's new four-car factory-backed Nissan squad.

The family-owned Kelly team is switching from Holden to Nissan under the new Car Of The Future rules, with co-owner/drivers Rick and Todd Kelly joined by Caruso and DJR defector James Moffat, son of V8 legend Allan.

Having secured McLaughlin, who was also in serious talks with Walkinshaw Racing until Ingall's sponsor-linked reprieve, Rogers is agonising over his other driver.

He is also debating whether to keep Frenchman Alex Premat, who struggled in his rookie V8 season, or pick up sidelined star Greg Murphy, dropped by the Kellys after two miserable seasons.

Murphy, hamstrung by a succession of uncompetitive cars since 2005, is also a hot commodity on the endurance race co-driver market because of his consistent front-running form in the Bathurst 1000. His four victories in that race have cemented his lasting fame and popularity.

Adelaide's Pye, who is being groomed for V8 stardom by the championship-dominating Triple Eight team's owner Roland Dane, has been placed with series minnow Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport to gain further experience.

In contention for a possible seat at DJR to replace entry owner and driver Dean Fiore (who may have to step aside for a funded driver) and promising privateer Tekno's second car are sponsor-rich West Australian discards Karl Reindler and Michael Patrizi.

Also on the market are experienced Steve Owen – sidelined by longtime competitor Paul Morris' decision to sell one of his entries to wheelchair-bound team-owner Lucas Dumbrell – and fellow Melburnian Taz Douglas, replaced at LDM by Tim Blanchard. He brings backing to help the expanding family-owned team's efforts to escape from the rear of the field.

Davison and McLaughlin will have their first hit-outs with their new teams at a Car Of The Future test at Winton Motor Racing, near Benalla in northeast Victoria, on Tuesday.

FPR will run three COTF-spec Falcons, while its red rival Holden Racing Team will field a pair of next-gen Commodores in addition to GRM's version.